Scientists get another day to study Gulf spill cap

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NEW ORLEANS, July 18 (AP): Scientists got an extra day to evaluate whether the giant cork bottling BP's busted well in the Gulf of Mexico will hold, while officials overseeing the disaster pondered their next step.
After days of watching, engineers still saw no signs of any leak in the well cap that has shut in the crude for three days. The oil giant and the government were becoming increasingly confident in the temporary stopgap.
"Everybody has been so worried about it blowing," said Willianet Barksdale, a security guard on the public beach at Gulf Shores, Ala. "Maybe this means it's holding and this is almost over."
But the pressure readings were still lower than expected. Scientists were mapping the seafloor and conducting tests to determine if the well simply bled more than initially thought, leaving less oil to put pressure on the cap. Robots patrolled the sea floor in search of any problems.
The trial run - which began Thursday and was extended Saturday - is now set to end Sunday afternoon.
Initially, BP and the government said it was possible the cap could shut in the oil until relief wells were completed and heavy cement and mud is blasted in to plug the bandaged wellbore permanently.
But instead, the cap is to be hooked up through nearly a mile of pipes stretching to ships on the surface that will collect the oil, according to retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man on the crisis.
That decision likely means crude will be released back into the Gulf to temporarily relieve pressure, although it still would not be gushing at the rate it had been before BP's latest fix.
The cap, which on Thursday stopped the crude for the first time since the April 20 explosion unleashed the spill, lets BP shut in the oil, which would be important if a hurricane were to hit the Gulf and force ships to leave the area.